Saturday morning at the Fish Market

Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market (Tsukiji Shijo) is the world's largest fish and seafood market. It's a favorite first stop for tourists when jet lag wakes them up the first morning at 4 a.m., because the market opens at 5 a.m. and holds a daily tuna auction after 6 a.m. (My Seattle friend, Julie Weed, took her family there on their weeklong trip to Tokyo.)

We weren't organized for the jet-lag trip, but we went to Tsukiji today and saw plenty - even if we did arrive at 10 a.m.

We took the subway




and wandered into this enormous market with cobblestone pathways splitting hundreds of tiny seafood stalls.



This man had abalone, squid and octopus in his stall.



Motorized carts zip around carrying boxes, ice and fish guts



A few thousand TONS of seafood are sold here every day. We saw hunks of halibut, frozen slabs of tuna, sacs of salmon roe, King Crab legs, eel (Lucinda's favorite), and bags of dried sardines. (The prices are in yen, of course, and $1 = 115 yen if you want to do the math.)








At a restaurant this weekend, Blaine and I ate this snail-like mollusk raw and marinated in a vinegary sauce - very chewy and a bit gooey.



At the end of the work day (noon), these men cleaned their enormous knives



Here's one last pic, of Arno smiling next to a bloody, dead fish! Charming.

School update

A note about the kids' schools:

Lucinda's first 10 days at Nishimachi International School have gone very well, and I'm encouraged that she'll feel fully integrated into her new surroundings, with her new classmates, in the next month or so.

Lucinda, at 5, can be stubborn about small things when she feels anxious about changes in her life, which generates a certain amount of drama. This is true even though she usually enjoys whatever she tries, whether it's a playdate with a new friend, or eating sushi or seaweed.

We weren't sure how she would handle the start of kindergarten in Tokyo because she loved Parkside, her Seattle pre-K, and misses her Seattle friends and the rhythm and familiarity of the games she played with them.

To our delight and relief, though, Lucinda has been totally mellow about school here, ready to get dressed and out the door in the morning, and joyfully talks about the reading/math/art/music/Japanese skills she's tried that day. (On Friday she made clay in her first pottery class.) Her teacher, Penelope Amies, seems warm and plugged into the kids, and we are gratified that the good-for-Lucinda vibe we got from our visit to Nishimachi in June matches the reality in September.

Arno, who will be 3 in November, has started a bilingual (English-Japanese) program at the Willowbrook International School. He is in the "Umi" (Ocean) class, where the teachers speak English in the morning and Japanese in the afternoon. To symbolize the language change, the teachers Makiko and Sharee hang Japanese tapestries outside the door and in the classroom.

Arno is an easygoing kid, and he's been cheerful when I drop him off for his first days of school. He clings a bit, then trades his Crocs for his yellow, Velcro-ed New Balance "indoor shoes" - how Japanese! - and scans the small classroom for something to engage him. One day it was the astronaut costume, and another day, when the teachers put homemade red playdoh on the art table, Arno grabbed a big hunk of it and said, "Bye, Mom." No drama there.

Reading material

I've finally finished a magazine story that's been on my desk for months: C.J. Chivers' piece for Esquire mag about the Chechen terrorists' siege in 2004 of a school in Beslan, Russia.

Chivers is a former Marine and a phenomenal reporter; he's a Moscow correspondent for the NYT and is married to Suzanne Keating, a Brown grad.

His story, called "The School" is quite gruesome, but very powerful. It won all sorts of awards. Worth printing out and reading over time.

Typhoon Fitow

Our first typhoon is here - Typhoon Fitow, with projected winds of 80-100 mph and up to 20 inches of rain. It's pouring outside!

We've had rainy weather for a few days, and I've noticed something curious: In NYC, people mostly use small compact umbrellas. But here, when the forecast says rain, Japanese people carry these long umbrellas with a very curved rain shield and a curved handle.

People hang them on an arm and whip them overhead to handle short, frequent rainshowers.





The sameness of style - among women and men, children, seniors, teenagers - is remarkable.


This is what you see outside office buildings and restaurants.



And many businesses (including this, at Starbucks) provide plastic bags for umbrellas in these contraptions.

Japanese lessons?

A friend asked if/when I'll take Japanese lessons. Answer: Once the kids are reliably in school for full days and once I've gotten a handle on household stuff. Which is to say, in the next month or so.

Blaine took several weeks of lessons in Seattle, but I bailed out after one week because studying soaked up too much time before the move. So for now, I can say exactly three things:

"Ohayo gozaimashita." This is "good morning," said politely... But I just realized, as I checked the spelling, that it is not a generic "hello" - and I've been using it all day! Embarrassing. Must switch to "konnichiwa."

"Arigato gozaimashita" This is "thank you", said politely, but sometimes I screw up and say "ohayo."

And "sumimasen", which is "I'm sorry" or "excuse me" and which I use constantly, like when the stroller bumps into someone's foot.

I can also say "My name is Jessica" ("Watashi no namae wa Jessica desu"), but I don't know any Japanese people to introduce myself to! Maybe someday that will come in handy.

Blaine's latest

Blaine has a fun story (Wednesday) about South Koreans who lie on their resumes about college degrees to get ahead in Korean society and business. Even a Buddhist monk did it!

Done and not done

Accomplishments from the first two weeks in Tokyo:

1. Both kids are in fantastic schools
2. I've taken the bus and subway - and I'm walking around the neighborhood enough to find shortcuts
3. Finding cheaper shops, where Japanese people shop, to replace the expensive expat haven, National Azabu Supermarket
4. Successful separation of our trash into "burnable", "unburnable" and "recyclables" - and putting the right trash out on the right day

What I still need to do:

1. Buy a mop, broom and serious cleaning supplies
2. Open a bank account (it takes weeks to receive necessary immigration papers)
3. Get money from an ATM machine with my WaMu bank card
4. Find the Tokyo equivalent of Mutual Fish, Seattle's best fishmonger

What I miss most about Seattle:

1. Our big, green backyard
2. Friends we really know, who really know us
3. A house with colorfully painted walls
4. Driving a car to buy groceries
5. Trader Joe's and Whole Foods
6. A disposal in the sink
7. Views of the Cascades and Lake Washington from my office

What's better about daily life in Japan:

1. Thin plastic containers and the use of soft plastic or paper to replace the heavy, hard plastic that dominates American grocery and beauty packaging.
2. Smaller, more rational food portions.
3. Milk, ice cream, cookies and chocolate taste less sweet.
4. Seeing and trying new things

Sunday with the children

On Sunday morning I took Lucinda and Arno to the Tokyo Metropolitan Children's Hall, a five-story activity center near the Shibuya train and bus station. It's not fancy, but it is free and had great activities inside.

We took the bus and walked to this enormous cement building




Lucinda hop-scotched and hula-hooped





Arno played the drums in the instrument room



We made a silly horse and dog out of clay



And dressed up in kimonos.



Superfun! as Arno likes to say

Lunch with Arno

Last Friday, while we waited for Lucinda to finish school, Arno and I lunched on raisin bread and apple juice and watched teenagers practice baseball at a nearby field.

Great food

With Blaine still in Seoul, I hired our first babysitter and escaped from the kids on Saturday for a movie and supper.

I ended up in a Roppongi Hills' theater with 600 of my closest friends to watch Ocean's 13, starring the still-handsome George Clooney, the aging Brad Pitt, a plasticized Ellen Barkin and an entertaining, contorted plot that didn't quite add up.

Then I had a fantastic meal at a restaurant near Azabu Juban. I don't know the name of the place, but I could find my way back. Here's what it looked like:

Creamy pumpkin soup with croutons:



Five slices of tuna sashimi and a tiny slab of "milk tofu" with a bit of salad:



For dessert, red azuki-bean jam, forest-green "agar of mugwort", apple slices, and a swirl of whipped cream topped by clear, sweet syrup. Completely delicious.



My date was a book.



Price (not including the book or the babysitter): 3500 yen, about $30!

Blaine's latest story

Here's Blaine's story about the S Korean Christians who went to Afghanistan to proselytize and were held hostage for 6 weeks by the Taliban.

The former hostages landed in Seoul this morning and Blaine was up at 6 a.m. to write about their return - and the alleged payment of $20 million to the Taliban to free them. Nice going, South Koreans!

Trailing Spouse

Blaine has been in Seoul, South Korea, since Tuesday to meet with experts and high-level government types to scout for story ideas. He planned to come home today (Friday) but was held over in Seoul for the joy of waking up at 4 a.m. on Sunday to slam together a deadline story about the return of South Koreans Christians who were held hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Then he'll hop on one of the 17 daily flights between Seoul and Tokyo and be home by 7 p.m. or so.

This means that Lucinda, Arno and I have been together all week by ourselves, and I took them tonight to a typically small Japanese restaurant for tempura (shrimp, eggplant, sweet potato, squash and mushroom), rice and soup.

We also tried a new tofu dish: several blocks of tofu were delivered in a hot clear soup, with a side dish of shaved bacon (I think) and thinly sliced scallions and a small bowl of tempura-ish soy sauce. The waitress watched me fumble around with it and came over to explain that I should lift the tofu with a little strainer into the tempura sauce, add in bacon and scallions, mix and eat.

It was fantastic. Lucinda loved it, too, but Arno didn't like the squishiness of it. At least they love tempura and rice - our Japanese equivalent of mac n cheese.

Good friends in Seattle

Even though we've been here a few weeks, I didn't want to forget about our last visits with so many good friends in Seattle:

We had waffles and lattes for the umpteenth time at the home of Blaise Aguera y Arcas, Adrienne Fairhall and their children, Eliot and Anselm.







We went to the Seattle Tennis Club with Josie and John Amory and their sons, William and Thomas, for a swim and supper - and ice cream.






We took the ferry to Vashon Island to hang with the fine Kellison-Straleys: Julia, Nick, Georgia and Oliver. Lucinda and Georgia are especially great pals.





We went up the Space Needle for the first time with Bill and Eileen Yardley and their children, Clara, Louisa and Jack D. (Bill is the Seattle Bureau Chief for the New York Times.) Arno is STILL talking about Clara, who held his hand as we walked along Queen Anne Blvd. (Apologies for the dark foto of the Yardley family.)






Without an official photographer present, we had a delicious dinner with Sam and Lisa Verhovek and Margaret Lane and Steven Caplow. This was a nice bookend to a goodbye party we attended in 2003, when we were fresh off the plane from NYC, in honor of Sam and Lisa's move to China for the Los Angeles Times.

And we had many playdates with, and attended a goodbye party for, Maryam Mohit, Erik Blachford and their children, Jake, Sedi Ann and Theo. They've just moved to San Francisco.

Don't forget us! We may well be back in Seattle in 2010 or 2011.

Free at last

Hooray - the kids are in school! Which means I have more time to look around, to write, to think... and to blog.

Blaine on A1

Hooray! Blaine has his first Asia story on the front page - or A1, as it's known in a broadsheet newspaper.

Here is his lede:

Japan's Warp-Speed Ride to Internet Future

By Blaine Harden
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, August 29, 2007; Page A01

TOKYO -- Americans invented the Internet, but the Japanese are running away with it.

Weekend festival

Festivals are terrifically popular in Japan throughout the year, and we spent some time this weekend at the festival on Azabu Juban, one of Tokyo's oldest shopping streets, which is a 15 minute walk from our house.

On Saturday and Sunday nights, thousands of people were packed onto Azabu Juban on streets lined with red lanterns and bordered by booths selling roasting meat and seafood, corn, edamame and "kakigori", which are shaved ice treats doused with sweet syrup.

Unlike the lame New York City street fairs that seem made for tourists, this was crowded with "real" Japanese people, including many women and children wearing beautiful kimonos.

Here's the street scene:








On Sunday night, we also stopped at a similar, more modern-looking festival in the Roppongi Hills area, which is home to towering luxury apartment buildings and several investment banks. Lucinda enjoyed a giant batter-coated prawn and we tried mediocre squid and chicken with grilled corn.

We heard traditional drumming by a troupe of young women, and watched hundreds of people participate in line dances that circled from the stage into the crowds - led by women and children in kimonos. Here are some views: